The Unified Reich

 I don’t know if many readers will remember an American video about a year ago heralding a “Unified Reich”  and calling for “a New International Order”, but events have now caught up with the video’s message if what transpired at last weekend’s Munich Security Conference is any indication.  The U.S. Vice President, J.D. Vance openly embraced German neo-nazis and then lectured Europe on worrying too much about Russian and Elon Musk’s attempts to influence their elections. He chided Europeans for paying insufficient  attention to “the enemy within”, a chilling phrase that echoes Trump, but also invokes Adolf HItler’s rage against the Jews and the left in the Weimar Republic.  Who among us can forget Elon Musk’s triumphant “Sig Heil” the day of Trump’s inauguration?  Or Trump’s very recent statement “He who saves the country does not violate the law.”  Together, these events seem to me a repeat of the Nazi slogan:  “Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer!”  in English: “One People, (i.e. Maga), One State, One Leader” - in other words, a “Unified Reich”.  

Trump’s claim that he is saving the country is the exact opposite of what he is doing. Because taking a wrecking ball to the U.S. government and its agencies, conducting mass firings of civil servants, and destroying and withholding government data has deadly consequences that go far beyond the initial performative shock and awe.  Civil servants serve the people;  they uphold the laws of the land, hold industrial polluters to account, protect consumers from fraud, ensure schools and hospitals are up to standard, prevent tainted food or dangerous medicine from being circulated,  inform the public about recent outbreaks of infectious diseases, of danger from extreme weather, and much much more.  By shutting down these government agencies and firing their employees, Musk and Trump are putting the entire population of the United States at risk.  

The wholesale destruction of government data is revealing in itself.  What better way of covering your tracks than getting rid of the evidence?  Taking away public data and funding for public research ensures that Trump’s government can flood the zone with propaganda, effectively depriving people of the means to check and monitor what their government is actually doing, or of what the consequences could be.

When the government shuts down public data and watchdog agencies, they are guaranteed to be up to no good.  Note, that we’ve seen this before when Stephen Harper was Prime Minister of Canada, and he defunded Canadian environmental science, muzzled government scientists, and actually threw the research literature into dumpsters.  Harper, who like candidate Pierre Poilievre, is closely allied with the Fossil Fuel industry, was banking on the principle that without good data, it is impossible for the public to get accurate  knowledge of the consequences of these industries emitting carbon dioxide and other pollutants, and how they ought to be mitigated.  Depriving citizens of the means to monitor the health of their environment doesn’t seem very consistent with democratic principles, does it? And if you, the enquiring reader, see a pattern here with right wing governments, fossil fuel companies, and the erosion of democracy,  you may be onto something. 

OK, but you may be thinking, with all the tech billionaires hanging with Trump at the inaugural, where were the oil barons, the Koch brothers, the head of Exxon, etc.?  Well, those guys prefer to be in the background, but rest assured their lavish funding is very busy behind the scenes doing a lot of the work of supporting Republican and Conservative party candidates as well as producing a  constant flood of misinformation about climate change and the benefits of fossil fuels. 

The thing is, few have any idea how deep this subterfuge is, or how far back it goes.  And surprise, surprise, it goes way back.  I’ve just finished listening to the audio version of Canadian author Carol Off’s book:  At a Loss For Words:  Conversations in an Age of Rage.  Besides being an author, Carol is even better known for being a host on the CBC radio show “As it Happens.” which provided a lot of the material for the book.  In her book she takes six words:  “freedom”, “democracy”, “truth”, “woke”, “choice”, and “taxes”,  and shows how their meanings have been deliberately twisted and distorted by the extreme right.  

The original initiative for the modern right comes from a small group of economists and evangelical Christians, who objected to the U.S. federal government’s campaign of desegregation in the 1960’s, and from rich oil men, namely the Koch brothers, who didn’t like democracy,  being taxed, and being fined for dumping toxins into the air and water. With the oil oligarch’s money they created an entire ecosystem of interconnected right wing think tanks:  The Heritage Foundation, The Cato Foundation, The Heartland Institute, The American Legislative Council, known as ALEC, which manufactures made-to-measure union-busting, anti-environmental, anti-abortion laws on demand, and let’s not forget The Federalist Society, funded by dark money, which has been instrumental in selecting Supreme Court judges in order to overturn Roe vs Wade’s legalization of abortion. 

Which brings us to Trump’s in-your-face oligopoly and project 2025, produced by the Heritage Foundation. 

 What we are seeing with Doge’s wholesale destruction of government agencies and Trump and Musk’s lawbreaking is the culmination of the extreme right's plans to get rid of democracy.  What appears as out and out chaos is actually the point.  If the U.S. government is gravely weakened, public data destroyed, and civil servants fired en mass, then the government is likely to fail at protecting its citizens.  If science and higher education is defunded then there will be no independent sources of knowledge and everyone will be at  the mercy of the peddlers of disinformation.  As a result Americans will have even less trust in government and in scientific knowledge than they have already,  and there will be no objective standards to hold those in charge accountable. It’s rule by the rich, otherwise known as - Oligopoly.  Trump sees more in common with Putin’s Russia  than he does with  a democracy like Canada’s.  Getting rid of democracy - That’s the “the Unitary Reich” and “New International Order”.

Nice Country You've Got There Buddy!

 Nice country you got there buddy!  You wouldn’t want your economy to get hurt now, would you?  It would be a shame, a real shame - a nice country like yours - getting hit by nasty tariffs!  A real shame!  But, you know, there’s something you could do for me……

Since Mr Trump’s election we can kiss goodbye  to the “rules based order”  and say hello to obeisance to the “strongman”and the billionaire pals of the strongman divvying up the economic system.  With Trump we are very likely to see international organizations like the U.N., and other international agreements and institutions downgraded and bypassed through separate deals between individual nations.   Instead of “win win”  we’ll get “lose lose”, as jobs are lost and inflation soars.   The United Nations was constructed to prevent another world war, the International Monetary Fund and GATT, to avoid global depressions and the tariff wars that can precipitate them. The World Health Organization or W.H.O. works to promote global health.  It helps to control disease outbreaks like polio, HIV, Ebola, and Covid.  Containing a disease like Ebola in one country is a boon to every country.   Once these international organizations are fatally weakened,  we will find ourselves much closer to the conditions leading to another world war.  

Lots of people want to burn it all down: all the peace, order, and good government that we had, all the institutions that we built that helped many of us to flourish.  When we look at governments as gangs with a big man on top, all that flourishing goes away and we are looking at a dog eat dog world - in other words - at Social Darwinism. It’s going to be: survival of the biggest meanest son-of-a-bitch!

In Trump we have an American President who literally sees Putin, Hitler, and the Mafiosa, i.e., the aptly named “Mob”,as his lifelong role models.  Secrecy, loyalty, escalation instead of compromise, never admitting mistakes, and saving face above all else.  All of the above - the opposite of good government. 

 Conservatives used to tell us that character is an essential component of leadership. Once they fell for Trump’s endless lies they stopped believing in character.  We are about to relearn this lesson the hard way!

My guess is that Trump’s election is going to accelerate the breakup of the “United” States, and, if we let him, Canada. When Donald Trump made that little joke to Trudeau, about Canada joining the states, it wasn’t a joke.  We should keep our eyes on Canadian politicians because the next few years are going to prove their mettle or prove their spinelessness.  This is a real test for Canadians using live ammunition - no joke! In Canada we have a truly great country. We need to keep it that way by standing up to Donald Trump and rejecting all of his corrupt tactics.

Trudeau's luck may have changed

 We all know that Justin Trudeau has gone past his due date, after three terms as Prime Minister.  There’s a rising visceral hate-on for the guy which, in my opinion, is undeserved.  We’ve all heard the anti-Trudeau rage, but what is it based on, other than fatigue? 

We have a “Prime Minister in waiting”, Pierre Poilievre, a very effective leader of the opposition, who is crushing Trudeau in the polls.  Poilievre is really good at tossing out slogans that rhyme:  “axe the tax”, etc.,  but not so good at envisioning anything better, as far as an actual set of responsible policies.  For a  long time now, it looked as if the Trudeau Liberals were headed for decisive defeat in the next election. Now things have become a lot less certain, and the reason is the post-election whirlwind south of the border.

I think that the election of Donald Trump has done more to unify Canada than anything in our collective memories since the Second World War.  His proposed tariffs could wreak real havoc.   And once Trump dropped his tariff bombshell, all of a sudden the Trudeau hate fest seemed kind of passe. We got to see a bunch of provincial premiers make fools of themselves by telegraphing their desperation to cave to any and all of Trump’s cockamaimie demands. It was truly pathetic! And in the face of Trump’s destructive flailing, Poilievre, the one-trick pony, reacted by  doubling down on his harsh criticisms of the Prime Minister. 

 Trudeau was decisive. He  quickly convened a summit of the Premiers. Within the week he had called Trump and flown to Mara Lago for a face-to-face with the Whirlwind himself.

 

  Reminds me of a story in the Bible; it’s in the Old Testament; something about a guy with bad luck whose luck changes when he insists on having it out with a whirlwind.  

Trump doesn’t actually become president for another month.  But when he does he will sow nothing but chaos.  If Trudeau is smart, he will do his utmost to put off the election as long as possible,(my suggestion - a full year after the American election.) We don’t need a divisive election campaign when we are faced with a devastating threat to our economy from an external foe. 

In a year Trudeau will seem like an island of stability compared to the gathering storm down south.  But as for Poilievre, I bet that his “attack-dog” imitation of Trump will not go down well. And, as they say: those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind.

The Storm the Day After

 There’s been a series of gales in Prince Rupert that began the day after the American Election.  The first Morning after, I was taking my wife up to catch the bus to Terrace at 8:00 up on  summit hill, and she almost got blown over by the gusts. The wind and rain were vicious and relentless. I stayed inside as much as I could and watched the waves of hard rain and the branches of the big spruce lash back and forth in the heavy gusts.  

It’s wonderful to be cozy and warm indoors and know that you are safe even in the midst of a storm.  Some people are not so lucky though.  Like the people in the Caribbean  and the American South who get struck by hurricanes.  When your house is in the path of a hurricane the immense power of the wind can turn it into a deadly foe as the house goes from a means of protection to a lethal barrage of exploding timber in a split second.

Maybe you can see where I’m going here.  We can feel safe and secure here in Canada as Americans do their destructive thing. But the United States is the biggest economy in the world. For that reason alone the effects of this foreign election will be destructive around the globe, but especially in Canada because the U.S. is our biggest trading partner. 

 

Democratic elections are always going to be divisive to some degree; the American Presidential election, because so much is at stake, is decidedly so.  Less than a month ago we had a very close provincial election, and the NDP scraped back to power, with the Conservatives breathing down their necks.  And we wait for the coming Federal election which we all know will occur sometime next year.  Elections can be divisive, but as Canadians we have faith that whoever gets into power will be reasonably competent at governing or else they will be voted out of office in four years or less.  That used to be the case in the U.S. but it isn’t anymore. With Donald Trump we are looking at a world of chaos for who knows how long.  It’s great to live in a safe, prosperous country like Canada, but we should never take it for granted.  Sometimes a big wind comes from the south and it is strong enough to uproot everything.

"Share the Anxiety!"

 

“Share the anxiety,” I always say. Whatever one is anxious about, it often feels better to talk to people you know. Just talking helps put  a different perspective on your worries, just the act of sharing can make one reconsider whether things are really going to be that bad.  So I’m doing that, I’m sharing my anxiety about the upcoming election.  But I’m not referring to the BC election, nor the upcoming Federal election that we all know is coming next year. No, I’m not anxious about the state of democracy in Canada, (yet)…

 What keeps me up at night is the fact that the most powerful nation in the world is no longer a stable democracy and this coming November could set the scene for even more political chaos.  I have faith in Canadian politics.  I’ll be OK if my party doesn’t win.  But I have lost faith in American politics.  When a person who is an amoral compulsive liar and a psychopath is one major party’s Presidential candidate, and he has, according to the polls, a fifty fifty chance of winning in November, it scares the living daylights out of me.  Here’s a guy who every day sounds more and more like Adolf Hitler, and fifty percent of America is OK with it.  We’ve seen enough of Trump from his first presidency to know he won’t be any friend of Canada’s.  And this time he’s running on a campaign of retribution against his enemies and starting a trade war with the rest of the world.  He says he wants to be a dictator on day one, and that, “one really violent day”, where the police could do whatever they want, would be just the thing.  This year, the U.S. Supreme Court granted him virtual immunity if he so happens to get elected again.  What could possibly go wrong? It seems to me that the entire world is on a knife’s edge, that things could be OK, or they could go terribly wrong, depending on who gets elected in this very close American election. It is not a pleasant thought. And so I share my anxiety.

"One Really Violent Day"

 “If you had one really violent day....one rough hour — and I mean real rough — the word will get out and it will end immediately, you know? It will end immediately.”  - Donald Trump, Erie Pennsylvania, Sept. 29, 2024.

 Fascism happens in stages:  first of all you spread lies, lies that many people would like to believe, lies about the particular low status group that you know many fear and hate.  It used to be about “the Jews”, but they are a high status group now, so the hatred has moved on to other groups, refugees, immigrants, Haitians…. If you have media that will support the spread of lies, such as:  Fox News, One America, Breitbart, etc.,  then you can normalize them, which in turn, solidifies a very strong connection between fascist provocateurs, like Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, and Alex Jones, and their mass audience, amplifying their ability to produce  and sustain mass rage and resentment. 

 You can begin the process of normalizing violence through the spreading of malicious lies, while making a point of both glorifying guns and violence; which then incites an increase in violent crimes and mass murders; and this trend works wonders to increase the levels of fear and polarization. You can then innocently point to “lone wolves” the mentally ill, and “bad guys with guns” and, of course, “illegal immigrants” for all the mayhem you were encouraging yourself.

 But there still is another stage after this where the destruction of the moral system undergoes a tipping point.  Let’s call this: the point of “breaking glass”.  In the United States, January 6, 2021 was an attempt to “break the glass” which didn’t quite succeed in reaching that tipping point.  So we need to go back in time a little further to see the prime example of this.  We can see it in the historical occurrence of “Kristallnacht” - the night of broken glass. 

On the night of November 9, 1938, all over Germany, Jewish businesses and places of worship were ransacked and destroyed by people from Nazi organizations dressed in civilian clothes. Buildings were destroyed with sledgehammers and Synagogues were burned to the ground.  All the while this was happening Nazi authorities stood by and did nothing.   The name “Kristallnacht”  is a spin on the fact that the streets were filled with the shards of glass from countless windows of Jewish establishments. This was Hitler’s way of "getting the word out" in 1938, and it led directly to the concentration camps and the Holocaust.

If ever there was a single answer to fascism - it would be “common morality”.  Fascists are insecure impatient guys who want power for nefarious ends.  They know that common morality is a big impediment to getting their way.  And how do you jettison something so basic as morality? The answer is that you do it in stages, as can be seen from historical examples. 

First get people used to politicians lying. Next create a fake emergency like a ‘stolen election’ so you have an excuse to “break the glass”. Breaking the glass is a tipping point  in the evolution of a fascist movement. By breaking the glass you now normalize the destruction of morality, because people standing in the way of wrongdoing are all that stands in the way of instituting fascism. People don’t normally put up with arson, vandalism,  bullying, thuggery, and other forms of public violence, but what if the government is behind it, as the Nazi’s were in 1938?  Once the government is all in on the violence there are no other choices, and the net of authoritarianism closes in on everyone.

 The fascist method is that in an emergency, whether real or faked, you break the glass.  This is a very powerful message and it leads to “Final Solutions”.  Just “one really violent day....” - but when you break the glass and destroy the moral order it's no longer just a test - there will be no going back. You will end up as the Nazis did, and destroy your own civilization in a total war.

Lies: The Oldest Weapon of Mass Destruction

 On February  24, 2022 the Russian army, under the orders of Vladimir Putin, invaded Ukraine in the absence of any obvious provocation.  This “special military operation” that Putin insists on calling it, has led to the deaths of thousands of Ukrainians, destroyed entire cities and caused more than four million refugees to flee to other countries.  So far this atrocity has not diminished Putin’s popularity inside Russia, and that is for one basic reason: tyrants like Putin, stay in power through their ability to spread  lies.  If the Russian people had access to an independent press and were made aware of the brutality of the Russian invasion they would be more likely to reject Putin.  But by shutting down the independent media Putin has created a truly “captive” audience that now sees nothing but his lies. The very phrase “special military operation” is a deception, evidenced by the harsh fifteen year prison sentence that awaits anyone in Russia who dares call it a “war”. 

 

Putin’s reason for waging a “war” against Ukraine is based on the lie that The Soviet Union was once a mighty Empire.  “Make Russia Great Again!”   Putin’s war actually started in 2014 when he invaded Crimea and helped manufacture a Russian separatist movement in the Donbas. Part of this “war” also involved massive flows of misinformation from Russian trolls and hackers to the West, starting in Ukraine, and then the rest of Europe. This led to the amplification of extremist right wing groups all over Europe, to Brexit, and in America, to Trump’s election.  Whether or not Putin’s help actually got Trump elected, it is indisputable that the Trump campaign learned a lot from Russian disinformation tactics.  They eagerly incorporated the same conspiracy theories and techniques for spreading lies that had been spearheaded by the Russians.  

This is an important moment in history that needs to be heeded. I’m a philosopher and it’s my job to point out to you why the two worst leaders in recent world history have come to power and wreaked death and destruction because of their lies and their lying.

Generally in a democracy, a good leader will represent the majority of the people, but sometimes we get  opportunistic leaders who go out of their way to represent not the majority, but instead a specific minority, a minority who feel the most aggrieved, the greatest indignation, over losing their former status and influence.  The reason this kind of leader reaches out to such a minority group, is because the kind of people who nurse their grievances are easy prey.  People who are consumed with hatred and resentment will be happy to believe lies that support their resentments. And, It’s easy enough to produce these lies on demand, because to tell people what they want to hear is always easier than telling them the truth. 

 Donald Trump campaigned and governed on a platform of lies, from the Birtherism of the Tea Party, to his sharing conspiracy theories about global warming and the covid pandemic, to his use of lies about election fraud to try to overturn the 2020 election.

 On January sixth 2021 the entire world witnessed Trump’s sustained use of “election fraud” lies  to spearhead the first violent attempt to overturn a legitimate election in U.S. history. Trump did not have a total monopoly on the U.S. media, but he did have a captive audience that was receptive to his lies, and that is what made January sixth possible.

Allowing politicians to use lies as weapons to gain tyrannical power is a very bad idea.   Fortunately, the weaponization of lies can still be stopped if we do something about it now.  Putin is able to make very effective use of lies only because he has monopoly power in Russia.  By eliminating a free press, Putin easily magnifies the power of his lies.

  

America is now in a crisis, held hostage by Trump’s “stolen election” lies.  As long as one of the main political parties is supporting Trump’s leadership, they are supporting his corrupt modus operandi - the weaponization of lies. And this directly threatens American democracy by driving extreme polarization and by destroying the people’s trust in a peaceful transfer of power.   Lies pave the way for totalitarianism.  This is obvious in the case of Putin.  Unfortunately,  it is less obvious with U.S. politics, because the erosion of democracy seems to be happening in slow motion. Make no mistake, we will see U.S. democracy fail if we don’t stop the proliferation and use of this weapon of mass destruction now.